Fixed zebra-style art on static props on systems that used lower texture quality

Added experimental cpu_frequency_monitoring convar to detect thermal throttling. If you have TF2 performance problems on Windows, add “+cpu_frequency_monitoring 2” to the TF2 command line to see if CPU thermal throttling is an issue. If the displayed CPU frequency percentage drops below about 80-85% then you may have a problem with your CPU slowing down due to overheating. If it drops below 50-55% then you may have a serious problem. CPU overheating can be caused by overclocking, insufficient cooling, insufficient airflow, failing or dirty fans, or other causes. The CPU frequency results are displayed with cl_showfps or net_graph. For more detail see https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2715-YIPD-6873

[EDIT: All servers are now back up. Any stats you earned while playing were logged and will automatically update on the next map reset, even though it didn't notify you in-game. As you were, soldier! --[N] Obey]

Whoops, I forgot to post the patch update! It is minor, but apparently one nifty undocumented change has appeared:

Some TF2 Items Are Now “Commodities”

…Do what now?

You may recall that back in June ’14, the option to make Buy Orders was introduced to the Steam Market. When you place a Buy Order, you choose an item that you want to buy as soon as it hits the Market at or under your asking price. It won’t matter who you’re buying from; whenever an item goes on sale, it will check against all the Buy Orders out there that meet its terms, which can also help you sell an item instantly if you sell it under an existing Buy Order’s asking price. You can have as many Buy Orders as ten times your Steam Wallet’s current value.

Before this week, the only Commodities–items you can buy with Buy Orders–in the Steam Market were the following:

All Steam Trading Cards and Trading Card Booster Packs

All Emoticons

All Profile Backgrounds

Obviously, they were probably testing the Market functionality for several months with items that had both little value and a high volume of existing items. They must be happy with the results, because they are now increasing the number of items that are Commodities, and therefore can be bought with Buy Orders. All of the new items are tools, and this is significant:

Mann Co. Crate Keys (!!)

Mann Co. Supply Crates and Summer Claim Checks

I am unsure if this includes Mann Co. Select or Salvaged crates or not.

Robot Parts

Strangifiers, Strange Parts and Strange Filters

Piles of RoboKey Gifts and Piles of Summer Cooler Key Gifts

But single Mann Co. RoboKeys and the nine colored Summer Cooler Keys do not seem to be commodities yet.

Decal Tools

Gift Wrap

Backpack Expanders

Upgrade to Premium Gifts

Summer Starter Kits and Summer Adventure Packs

So for example, you can set a Buy Order for Crate Keys for $2, and as soon as one goes for sale at $2 or less, you (and anyone else that has a Buy Order) that qualifies can be sold the keys that go for sale as soon as they hit the market. Valve doesn’t say whether the “oldest” Buy Order goes through first, or some other random method, so don’t assume that you will get the first item to be placed on the Market for that price. But at least in the case of keys, if you’re patient, eventually someone will quicksell a key for your asking price if you’re sane about it.

In economics, a commodity is something that is always in-demand–such as pork bellies, wheat, or even skilled labor–but in plentiful enough supply that they see frequent trade.

Meanwhile, a currency is something that is assigned an arbitrary value to act as a middleman for trading wealth. For the last few years, metal, keys, earbuds and certain hats like Bill’s Hat have been acting as a currency, i.e. tradeable items have been valued in terms of these currencies, like “this unusual hat is worth 1.5 buds”. But since some items being traded also have their own useful function–i.e. keys can be used on crates, and they can be bought through the Mann Co. Store with almost no real limit to supply–then tool items, like keys, are really more of a commodity.

1. Headlines

PC Gamer reports that ESPN was so impressed with its ratings of its coverage of their Dota 2 International tournament that the sports network may be ready to start covering esports to a greater degree. Why not? They did draw over 20 million viewers total for the event, according to Valve.

The TF2 Blog has announced the Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards! September 24th is the submission deadline.

There is an official CivRome mod for Civilization V! But you need all of the DLC and expansions to run it.

2. TF2 Changes

The Heavy’s Gloves of Running Urgently (and the Bread Bite reskin) had been changed back in the June 11th patch to cause the equipping Heavy to suffer mini-crits from all damage for 5 seconds after switching off of them, instead of the previous 3 seconds. Apparently that was a bug, and now the mini-crit penalty is now back to 3 seconds after weapon switching.

The multi-stage beta map Cactus Canyon now has a third stage. And how about this: there is a train to dodge! Capping the point on the train tracks will cause the payload bomb to explode when hit by a train. Both Cactus Canyon had some updates, as you can read below.